Archives for: March 2005, 20

When I first started the Blood Type Diet, I read Heidi's column every day. I was fascinated, and I always learned something new. Not only that, it was as if Heidi was personally holding me accountable day by day. After she stopped writing new columns and went to reruns, I got out of the habit. But over the weekend the title on her column caught my eye. It was one I had never read, and it sparked an interesting conversation with my daughter.

If you want to read the whole column it was called. "Neutral vs. Neutral." The question was about whether all neutrals were equal or whether a neutral meat was better for a Type O than a neutral from another category. I'll paraphrase part of Heidi's answer in third person.

Neutral meat, poultry or fish has advantages over the grain and bean neutrals. Our digestive systems are better suited to the flesh food, nuts and vegetable categories than to the grain or bean groups. All neutrals are not equally useful. This applies within as well as across blood types.

A meal of grilled chicken and red lettuce salad, for instance, is heavy fare for a type A. For a Type O it feels like an appetizer. Yet these foods are neutral for both. And if a Type O had black beans instead of the chicken he would have an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach.

My Type A husband eats a fair amount of protein. He almost never eats red meat anymore, but he eats a lot of fish and turkey. Our daughter on the other hand has never eaten much meat of any kind. She likes tuna, chicken and turkey, but she eats very small amounts.

Before the BTD I worried about her a lot. Was she getting enough protein for her brain? (OK, she is an honors student; her brain must be fine.) Even after I began to understand the Type A diet, it didn't seem right that she ate only a half a slice of turkey. That is nothing in comparison to the amount of meat I eat.

I showed her Heidi's column, and she totally identified with it. She said, "If I eat a whole slice of meat, I get full way too fast, and I can't eat anything else. Half a slice of meat is fine, then I have room for salad and veggies."